meyer lemon yogurt cake with toasted pine nut crumble

The first weekend of 2012 brought freshly shucked oysters, crisp California wine, sweet sunshine, and some of the best company a lady could ask for.

It was also a weekend filled with warm fires, burritos galore, and lots of backyard-grown Meyer lemons.

Backyard citrus trees. Why California rocks – number 486. Meyer lemons are the darlings of the lemon world. They are super juicy with a slightly sweet flavor and have a beautiful golden yellow skin. I was honored to receive two bags of these über-local and freshly-picked little beauties to bake with to my hearts content.

My brain has been dreaming about a baked good with a lemon and pine nut combination for a good long while now. I have a fondness for simple cakes that are full of flavor but only require a whisk and a bowl. I didn’t want to interfere with the simplicity of the cake but I wanted to include pine nuts; thus the buttery nut crumble was born.

With bright lemon flavor and a dense but tender crumb, this cake is everything you want on your dessert plate for a morning treat, with afternoon tea, or as the perfect secret midnight snack.

Preheat the oven to 350 and generously butter and flour a springform pan. Lightly toast the pine nuts in a small dry skillet on medium high for about 3 to 5 minutes or until lightly brown. Let cool and then roughly chop the nuts.

Combine the flour, brown sugar, salt, and chopped pine nuts in a small bowl. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until large clumps form. Then let the crumble chill in the fridge while you make the cake.

In a medium bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl whisk the yogurt, sugar, eggs, zest, juice, vanilla and oil until combined. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the yogurt mixture until incorporated. Pour into the prepared pan and sprinkle the crumble evenly over the cake.

Bake for 55 minutes or until a tester comes out clean and the top is lightly browned.

Got really jazzed thinking you were going to make something with oysters. Then was kinda let down ….But then, Pine Nuts! You totally saved it. Whew… such a roller-coaster.

Can I make an oyster request though? Make anything. I shuck my own at home (kind of a pain and it takes a couple dozen to get good at it) and then it’s totally worth it. I would love to do something more interesting than raw oysters on the half shell with cocktail sauce. Ideas?

Hi Lillie! I made this cake last night- the crumble is just brilliant. Great addition to give the cake a little somethin’ special. I wanted to comment that my cake came out more dense than I would have liked. It was delicious and moist, but I was hoping for that crumbly moistness rather than the packed kind. If that makes any sense at all. Did you intend for people to use a mixer with this recipe or just whisk it by hand? Also, what size spring form did you use? (I let a friend borrow mine and used square glassware instead. Probably affected the cake, too.) Anyway, thanks again for the recipe-you’ve got some sweet ideas.

Hi Sati! I am so glad to hear you enjoyed the crumble addition. I could put crumble topping on most everything. To answer your questions: I used a 9-inch springform but the cake should have been fine in a square pan. The cake is quite moist from the yogurt and oil but I suspect the density is coming from over mixed batter. Gently fold the wet and dry together (with a very light hand) and it’s fine if some streaks of flour remain when you pour into the pan. Hope this helps and thanks for reading BMUB!